{"id":195930,"date":"2026-03-18T05:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195930\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:46:15","slug":"mom-of-4-recovering-after-unprovoked-stabbing-at-orlando-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195930\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom of 4 recovering after unprovoked stabbing at Orlando restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vxpxvjnq6vmq0hli.jpg\" alt=\"Mother recovering after unprovoked stabbing at restaurant, deputies say\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; A mother of four is recovering after authorities say she was stabbed in an unprovoked attack while working at a restaurant in Orange County.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The victim said she had been on a routine shift at a restaurant in the Union Park area when a man entered and began acting erratically.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">According to the Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the suspect, Justin Richards, allegedly caused a disturbance inside the restaurant before the situation escalated.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Investigators said Richards entered a Captain D&#8217;s location on East Colonial Drive and made alarming statements to people inside, including claims about violence against women. After being asked to leave, he became increasingly hostile, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;It just seems so crazy to me that you go to work and get stabbed,&#8221; Lavallee explained.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/fox-local\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Lavallee said she called 911 as tensions rose. Moments later, she said the man approached her multiple times before ultimately stabbing her.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;Next thing you know, he is all hostile and wanting to fight, and I&#8217;m just like I&#8217;m just trying to get through my shift, like I just had a baby six weeks ago,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was definitely not what I expected when I went to work that day, that morning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Lavallee described the moments leading up to the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;He ran up on me, and then he ran back toward the front door, and he did that three times,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The third time he did that, he stabbed me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">She was hospitalized and placed in a coma for several days. Doctors later determined the attack injured her spleen, which had to be surgically removed. She had given birth about six weeks earlier.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#8217;S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been a very rough recovery,&#8221; Lavallee said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Authorities said Richards later made incriminating statements to deputies following the attack. He has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bond in the Orange County Jail.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Lavallee described the attack as shocking and said she is focused on recovering and returning home to her children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This story was written based on information shared by the Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/orange-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orange County News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; A mother of four is recovering after authorities say she was stabbed in an unprovoked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[630,47,115,1335,139,141,140,628],"class_list":["post-195930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}